Science Bowl team wins 2nd place in LADWP regional competition

The Science Bowl Club’s “A team” reached second place in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power 20th Annual Science Bowl Regional Competition on Feb. 23.

The team fell to the North Hollywood High School “A team,” who will travel to Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl Competition in April.

The Harvard-Westlake A team, consisting of Anser Abbas ’14, Donhem Brown ’14, Rhett Gentile ’13, Kevin Zhang ’14 and Nick Abouzeid ’15, qualified out of their round-robin group with a score of 6-0. The team ultimately fell to North Hollywood in the final round, which was televised on LA Cityview 35.

“I thought as a team we performed pretty well,” Brown said. “We listened to each other and allowed each member to take charge of their respective subject. Of course first place would have been better, but there is nothing wrong with making it so far.”

The club also sent a “B team,” consisting of Zach Birnholz ’14, Andrew Friedman ’14, Jonathan Heckerman ’15, Nima Shamtoub ’14 and Larry Zhang ’14, who placed in the top 12 out of 55 teams in the double elimination tournament, qualifying 4-2 out of their group and falling after a loss to the North Hollywood “A team” as well.

“I think both teams performed amazingly,” Science Bowl President Kenneth Kim ’13 said. “In previous years, [North Hollywood] has been winning by miles, but this year, both teams made [them] sweat. The B team was leading them during their round robin match, and A team was leading in the finals. We were ahead at a point, which is pretty awesome.”

The club continues to practice, hoping to scrimmage against the science teachers again this year, Kim said.